Nathan leads Composition at AFYM 2026

Nathan joins the line-up of adjudicators for the 2026 Abertawe Festival for Young Musicians in January 2026. He will lead the ‘Own Composition’ round (non-competitive) where talented young students from South Wales recieve specialist advice on their new music and hear it live.

WHAT IS AFYM?

The Abertawe Festival for Young Musicians (AFYM) was founded in 1993 by two local music teachers Nicky Excell and Penny Davies. They had a vision to improve and widen music education for all children, providing support and performance opportunities for these ever growing musicians. 

Featuring competitive and non-competitive classes for players of instruments both as soloists and ensembles, the first Festival took place in the Taliesin Arts Centre and involved 70 children, rising to over 500 in recent years. With adjudicators being drawn from the nation’s top performers and music educators the festival has grown in strength and numbers over the years with thousands of children participating in the AFYM. 

Performers are invited from all over South Wales.  Since the festival has grown, so has the space in which it is performed. We have made use of the Guildhall complex, using their stunning facilities for numerous years and we are ever grateful to the City and County of Swansea for the continued use of such a beautiful building.

AFYM Alumni

AFYM students have gone on to study at the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama, Royal Academy of Music, Royal College of Music, Guildhall School of Music and Drama, Trinity College (London), Royal Northern College of Music, Yehudi Menhuin School, Purcell School, Chethams Music School, and Wells Music School.

Some have gone on to study abroad, notably in Hungary and Finland, and some have gained professional orchestral positions. Our performers regularly gain prizes at the Eisteddfod, in the BBC Young Musician of the Year, The Texaco Young Musician of Wales, and in the Young Musician of Dyfed Competitions.

Many AFYM performers have followed careers in music; as free lance musicians, jazz musicians, in some of the major UK orchestras, as soloists, composers, lecturers and teachers, editors and arrangers.

Three AFYM alumnae have held the post of Official Harpist to HRH The Prince of Wales: Claire Jones (2007-11), Hannah Stone (2011 -15) and Anne Denholm (2015-19).

For more information about the festival, please visit their website: https://afym.org.uk